'S' letter hiss (deessing) - how to separate 'S' frequencies in a WAV?

[zee944]

I have annoying hiss at 'S' letters in a WAV. I've tried the known deesser softwares, but they've worked poorly, since they reduce frequencies in the whole file. All of them, which is crazy. They ruin the sounding.

I guess this "deesser" thing would be more effective if not a frequency range in the whole file but only the 's' parts would be touched. Isn't there a plug-in or audio editor which can look for the parts where the 's' sounds are really recognizable and applies filtering only for that certain parts?

Or: how can I separate the really problematic 'S' parts? Only where the problem is evident. So I could apply a deesser software (like Spitfish) on them the mix back to the original recording. I'm sure it isn't too hard to do for an audio expret and that would be the best deesser in the world.

Thanks for any help.

[Soopafresh]

The best deesser I've worked with is from Waves, it's called the Renaissance De-Esser. It can create a very deep "notch", so whatever frequencies you dial in are precisely targeted, leaving the frequencies above and below untouched. It is really expensive, however.

http://www.waves.com/content.aspx?id=267


Another thing that helps to determine precisely where the "S" sounds are at is to analyze a short segment of your audio where you can hear it. In this example, the "S"es are at around 4000hz. "S" sounds are almost always above 3500hz and for a woman's voice as high as 7500hz.

[zee944]

Thanks. Do you say this doesn't work the usual way (reducing certain freqencies throughout the whole file), or does it?